Rawland Cycles reckon it has come up with some of the most versatile bikes available on the market with the release of new drop bar, fat tyred, off-road adventure machines, the Ravn and the Ulv.
At first glance the two bikes appear to be pretty far out of the left field, thoroughly into the realms of niche-dom. But on closer inspection, it becomes clear that they are designed to be hugely versatile bikes that will take on any guise with ease.
Both the Ulv and the Ravn are optimised for loaded riding; with a low trail geometry, handling is improved when riding with a load upfront. The bike also has more bosses than every Godfather film put together, and either of these bikes could easily be your bikepacking, adventure rig one day and a randonneuring, road wagon the next.
Rawland Ravn
The Ravn is the more ‘road’ orientated bike of the two and is optimised for (cover the ears of nearby children and infirm relatives) 26”x55mm or 650x42mm wheels.
Whilst Rawland points out that it will also take 700x44mm wheels, the cushy ride of the chunkier tyres is ideal for gravel riding, allowing you to float over rough terrain far easier than a narrower tread would.
Rawland Ulv
The Ulv is a trail orientated bike and is designed around 650b+ or 29er wheels. It also makes use of the Boost 148 standard out back to ensure the bike has the biggest clearances possible.
The Rawland website goes in to painstaking detail discussing how the bikes are designed and manufactured, so if you want to know exactly how they butt their tubes, be sure to have a look.
Pricing and availability
Both of the bikes come in at US$3,000 for a complete bike or US$950 for a frameset. The complete bikes come with a full hydro SRAM Rival groupset and are finished with own brand, Raidoverks finishing kit.
Both bikes are available for pre-order now for a 50% deposit and with an estimated shipping date of late 2016. Rawland is currently in talks with UK distributors and hope to have the bikes on British soil in early 2017. UK and Australian pricing is currently TBA.
We’re looking forward to getting one of these versatile machines in and seeing just how much beer we can load onto that front rack.
